Colorado State Emeritus Professor Honored for 30 Years of Leadership in Solar Energy Research

FORT COLLINS - Colorado State University Emeritus Engineering Professor Byron Winn has been named winner of the prestigious 2003 Charles Greeley Abbot Award in recognition of his more than 30 years of leadership in solar energy research and development. The Abbott Award, the top honor given by American Solar Energy Society, is given annually to an individual who has made significant contributions to the field of solar energy.

"I thank those from whom I learned about solar energy, and my many students who made it such a pleasure for me to teach," said Winn. "I especially want to thank former professor George Lof who was primarily responsible for developing the Solar Village at Colorado State University."

Winn is the third Colorado State professor to receive this award since its inception in 1975. George Lof was given the honor in 1980 and Susumu Karaki was presented the award in 1984.

Focusing much of his career on energy research, Winn co-established Colorado State's passive solar test facility at the Solar Energy Applications Laboratory. He is also the founder of the Manufacturing Excellence Center, the Energy Analysis and Diagnostic Center, the Waste Minimization Assessment Center and the Industrial Assessment Center at Colorado State.

Winn has performed research and published articles in the areas of solar energy, energy conservation and manufacturing, as well as optimal control, systems analysis, orbital mechanics, satellite geodesy, remote sensing, and hydrology and water resource systems.

During his career at Colorado State, Winn served as professor and department head of mechanical engineering for 13 years and as associate dean for research and graduate studies for the College of Engineering for two years.

Actively involved in energy research since 1973, Winn served on the boards of directors of the American Solar Energy Society, the International Solar Energy Society, the Colorado Renewable Energy Society and the Solar Rating and Certification Corporation. He additionally served as General Chairman of the annual meeting of the American Section of the International Solar Energy Society and the Biennial Congress of the International Solar Energy Society.

Winn was president and co-founder of the Solar Environmental Engineering Company and has served on the boards of directors of several other energy-related companies. He continues to serve as a consultant to many private and government organizations and has provided expertise to Public Service Company of Colorado, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Nebraska Energy Office, the Solar Energy Research Institute, the University of Mosul in Iraq, the National Research Council, the U.S. Department of Energy, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the National Bureau of Standards and several others.

Among his many accolades and professional honors, Winn is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and has served as a technical editor of the ASME Journal of Solar Energy Engineering. He also served as a technical editor of the Passive Solar Journal and Advances in Solar Energy. He has served on the National Education Committee and as chairman of the Rocky Mountain section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Winn received his doctorate in Aeronautical and Astronautical Sciences from Stanford University in 1967, his master's degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Stanford in 1960 and his bachelor's in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1958.

The Abbot Award is named in honor of Charles Greeley Abbot who was a prominent researcher in solar energy. During his lifetime of 101 years, Abbot developed a number of instruments for measuring insolation, determined the solar constant with great accuracy, and contributed greatly to the understanding of the solar resource on earth. He was for many years the secretary (i.e. director) of the Smithsonian Institute.